UK housing market slumps; lower prices coming

The U.K. housing market is freezing up.

A survey of British property professionals shows the Brexit vote on June 23 caused activity to plunge.

Buyers stopped looking, homeowners kept their properties off the market and the number of sales dropped sharply, according to the survey conducted by the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors in the two weeks after the vote.

Commercial real estate values are already falling sharply, and it looks like prices in the residential market are now heading the same way. Property professionals expect prices to fall across the U.K. over the next three months. London will be harder hit, with prices seen declining for the next year, according to RICS.

The monthly report included comments from surveyors and real estate agents, and nearly all of them mentioned the U.K.’s decision to leave the European Union. (See the colorful comments below!)